31 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Jesus has just begun his public life: he invites people to a change of heart, he announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, and he heals every sort of illness and infirmity. The crowds are beginning to follow him. He climbs up to a high place and begins to teach those gathered around him, explaining his program for one’s life in what is known as “the sermon on the mount.”
Jesus’ new approach comes through right from the start. He announces that those who should be considered blessed are not the rich, the powerful, the influential, but those who are poor, humble, unassuming, pure of heart, those who mourn and are oppressed.
This “sermon” marks an overturning of the common mentality, especially in our society which often exalts consumerism, hedonism, and prestige. It’s the “good news” brought by Jesus, which gives joy and hope to those who are “least” and which instills trust in the love of a God who is close to those experiencing times of trial and suffering. This announcement of joy and salvation is summed up entirely in the first of the eight beatitudes which assures that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit:
«Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven»
But what does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” It means to be detached from our goods and possessions, from people, and from ourselves. In a word, it means to set aside whatever in our hearts prevents us from being open to God and his will and also from being open to our neighbors by making ourselves one with them in order to love them as we should. It means being willing to leave everything—father, mother, “fields” and country—if that is what God is asking of us.
To be “poor in spirit” means putting our trust not in riches but in God’s providential love. Often we are “rich,” for example, with worries about our health, with anxiety about our relatives, with concern about a certain job, with uncertainty about how to act in a given situation, or with fear for the future. All this can block us and make us close ourselves off and prevent us from being open to God and to our brothers and sisters. It is in these very moments, however, that the “poor in spirit” believe in the love of God, cast all their worries upon him, and in turn experience the love of such a Father.
We are “poor in spirit” when we allow ourselves to be guided by love towards others. We share with those in need and put at their disposal whatever we have: a smile, our time, our goods, our talents. Once we have given everything out of love, we are poor, that is, we are empty, open, free, pure of heart.
In turn, this “poverty,” which is a fruit of love, becomes a source of love: because we are empty of ourselves, and therefore free, we are able to welcome the will of God wholeheartedly, without reservations, and to welcome all those who come our way.
To those who live this purity of heart and poverty of spirit, Jesus assures that the kingdom of heaven is theirs; they are blessed because
«… theirs is the kingdom of heaven»
The kingdom of heaven cannot be bought nor can it be taken by force. It comes as a gift. This is why Jesus asks us to be like children or like the poor who, like children, need to receive everything from someone else. Then the Holy Spirit, attracted by that emptiness of love, will be able to fill our souls because he will not find any obstacles to impede full communion.
The “poor in spirit” have everything because they have kept nothing for themselves; they are poor of themselves and rich in God. Here again, the words of the Gospel apply: “Give and gifts will be given to you” (Lk 6:38). We give what we have and we are given nothing less than the kingdom of heaven.
This is the experience of a mother in Argentina: “My husband’s mother was so attached to him that she became jealous of me. Her attitude always created difficulties between us and hardened my heart toward her. A year ago she was diagnosed with a tumor. She needed treatment and assistance that her only daughter was unable to give her. For some time I had been trying to live the words of the Gospel and they changed my heart; I was learning to love. Overcoming every fear, I took my mother-in-law into our home. I began to see her in a new light and to love her. It was Jesus whom I was caring for and helping in her. She was not indifferent to my love, and to my great surprise she responded to every gesture of mine with an equal amount of love. The grace of God worked the miracle of reciprocity!
“Months of sacrifice followed but they were not a burden for me. And when my mother-in-law left serenely for heaven, everyone felt at peace. During those days I realized that I was expecting a baby, which we had so greatly desired for nine years! For us, this child is a tangible sign of God’s overwhelming love.”
Chiara Lubich
19 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato
P. (from Great Britain) has two classmates who always pick on him. “I’ve tried not to fight back,” confided P. to his grown-up friend, C., “but they still keep picking on me!” “Let’s ask Jesus to give you the strength to love them even more,” suggested C. One day, P. brought a huge tray of sweets to school to celebrate his birthday. The teacher told him that he may go to the other classrooms, too, to offer the sweets. “Choose two of your classmates to come with you,” she added. P. would have wanted to call his two best friends. The words, “… love your enemies,” came to his mind. “May T. and L. come with me?” he asked the teacher. They were just the ones who were bullying him. P. told C. all about what happened. “See?” said P., “Jesus gave me the strength to do it, and you know what? They’ve stopped bullying me.”
F. d. M. (from Guatemala): “The other day, Mom and Dad had a fight. That made me very sad. I wanted them to be happy and I wondered what I could do. Then I went to my younger brothers. We cut out paper flowers and hearts and stuck them on the wall. Mom and Dad were sitting in silence watching TV. We turned off the TV and sung them a song about how we should love one another. Mom and Dad were so touched they apologized to each other. Mom was so happy she cried. I was happy, too. We all went to bed very happy. ‘Thank you,’ I said to Jesus.” 
E. (from Trent) received some money from her grandparents when her baby teeth fell out. She was very happy because she had something to give to the poor who are getting help from the Focolare Movement. “Why don’t you keep some of the money to buy yourself that pair of shoes you need?” her Dad asked. “But Dad,” replied E., “the poor children don’t have shoes!” Her Dad understood. A short time afterwards, E. received a gift from her uncle and aunt: it was the pair of shoes she needed. E., 5 years old (from San Paulo, the biggest city of Brazil). Mr. C. takes E. to school everyday. He does not believe in God, and he is known to be a person who is hard to deal with. One morning, as Mr. C. was driving E. to school, she asked him, “Do you know what an act of love is?” “No,” he answered, “what is it?” “An act of love is when you see Jesus in everybody and treat every person the way you would treat Jesus,” she explained. Mr. C. became very pensive. A few days afterwards, at dinner time, E.’s father said that he noted that Mr. C. seemed different. He did not get upset so easily anymore. “When people ask him what happened, he answers, ‘Ask little E.’. I think we’ve got a lot to learn from children.”
19 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato
“My dear young people, never let difficulties stop you. They exist and they will always exist. Instead, turn every obstacle into a springboard for an ever greater, ever deeper, ever truer love!”
This was the core of Chiara Lubich’s message, launched during a telephone link-up with thousands of young people in 105 cities all over the world, gathered on Sunday, October 12 for the conclusion of the World Unity Week (WUW).
Chiara’s message was followed by experiences of life – lived in conditions of war, discrimination, poverty and injustice – shared by young people from Jerusalem, New York, Ivory Coast, Cebu, Uganda, Central Africa Republic, Recife (Brazil), and so on. These experiences helped the youth, especially the European youth, to overcome the crushing sense of helplessness they often feel in the face of the world’s evils. They were brought to see that love is the strongest force there is, and that, united together, young people can lift up the world. Youth from Burundi, presently living in a refugee camp in Tanzania, also shared their experiences. For the first time Medan, Indonesia – where 50 Christian, Buddhist and Muslim youth bound by one ideal of a united world were also gathered – also took part in the conference call.
“If you continue with renewed energy to bring God’s love to the world (…) then you will be truly free of yourselves! Then, yes, you will go against the current; actually you will create an entirely new current on our planet – the current of love, of fire…” This was Chiara’s challenge to the youth.
What is WUW all about: It is an opportunity for the youth, national and international organizations, and public and private institutions to appreciate the different existing initiatives aimed at promoting unity in all levels of society. During the week of October 5-12, in cities and towns, a series of activities were held – solidarity projects, concerts, sports events, prayer vigils, and open forums – all of which had as their principal theme “how brotherhood can be a way to build a united world”. Many interviews were broadcast on radio and published in newspapers at local and national levels to spread the message of the WUW.
Initiatives worldwide
Rosario (Argentina) – the municipality declared the WUW to be an event of public interest and advertised it on the city’s bus and rail tickets, even several months after it was held.
San Paulo (Brazil) – 70,000 daily planners were distributed that offered a “peace-building” motto to put into practice during each day of the WUW. The response from numerous students, teachers and authorities of public and private institutions was beyond all expectations.
New Caledonia – countless youth activities were held which joined together all ethnic groups, usually in conflict with one another.
Kampala (Uganda) – the young people visited the city orphanage where children sick with AIDS are housed. They also worked to gather clothes and other needed items for the people of Gulu (northern Uganda) which is in grave need due to guerrilla warfare occurring there.
Sicily (Italy) – the calendar of activities was packed. The Italian daily “Avvenire” published the following press release: “’In the name of brotherhood’ – this is the title of the initiative undertaken by The Youth for a United World – a youth sector of the Focolare Movement which is dedicated to carrying out activities aimed at world peace and brotherhood. Since yesterday hundreds of Youth for a United World in Sicily launced 16 initiatives in different cities and provinces – Palermo, Caltanisetta, Messina, Catania, Syracuse and Ragusa.
The funds will help finance scholarships for youth from the Middle East, Argentina and the Congo, and to support Project Africa which Chiara Lubich initiated in 2000 and which, this year, plans to sponsor activities aimed at providing work and training for the 60,000 people in the refugee camps of the Great Lakes and Tanzania.”
New hope is born
The outcome of the World Unity Week was well-expressed by one of the participants from Uganda: “Sometimes, just when love, brotherhood, and even God seem so distant, signs like this appear and give you the push you need to continue pursuing your goals.”
19 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato
My fondest memory of Mother Teresa is that final very warm embrace that we exchanged the last time we met, which was in May 1997.
She was sick in bed. I went with the intention of staying only a few minutes but at one point Mother Teresa started to talk about the work of God entrusted to her. It was her Magnificat, and it was something wonderful! She was radiant. That embrace has remained with me as a sign, a promise that she would continue to love us in a preferential way, because that was how she had always loved us. Ever since she left this earth I have counted her among our holy protectors, and I was certain, as everyone else was, that she would be declared a saint.
She fulfilled to perfection what the Pope describes as the “feminine genius”, something that Mary characteristically personified. She was not invested with a ministerial position. She was invested with love, with charity, the greatest gift, the greatest charism heaven created.
Mother Teresa is our model. She is the admirable teacher of the art of loving.
She truly loved everyone. She didn’t ask people whether they were Catholic or Hindu or Muslim. They were people and in that humanity rested all their dignity.
Mother Teresa took the initiative in loving. She went out to look for the poorest of the poor. She had in fact been sent by God for them.
Perhaps more than anyone else She recognized the presence of Jesus in them. “You did it to me,” in fact, was her motto.
Mother Teresa “made herself one” with everyone. She made herself poor with the poor, but she especially made herself poor “like” the poor. And in this her actions were very different from those of a social worker or a volunteer. She didn’t want to have anything that a poor person couldn’t allow himself or herself to have. It is well known, for example, that she and her sisters refused to accept a simple washing machine. Many people couldn’t comprehend her refusal. “But in this day and age!” they said. But since the poor couldn’t have one she didn’t want one either.
She took upon herself all the misery of the poor, their sufferings, their illnesses, their deaths.
Mother Teresa loved the others as she loved herself to the point of offering them her very ideal of life. For example, she invited the temporary volunteer workers who assisted her to look for their own ‘Calcutta’ when they returned home. After all, she wisely observed, “The poor are pretty much everywhere.”
Mother Teresa undoubtedly loved her enemies. She never wasted time responding to the absurd accusations made against her. Instead she prayed for her enemies.
After her death I learned even more about her and I eagerly read books about her. I admired Mother Teresa especially for her determination. She had an ideal: the poorest of the poor. And she remained faithful to it. Her whole life was aimed in that direction. In this aspect too she is a source of inspiration to me to remain faithful to the ideal that God has entrusted to me.
15 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato
Q. – Among the different prophetical aspects of John Paul II’s pontificate, one would have to include the new page he opened on the vigil of the Feast of Pentecost in 1998, that first historical gathering of hundreds of thousands of members of ecclesial movements and new communities. He publicly recognized them as “significant charismatic expressions of the Church” and he re-affirmed the co-essentiality between the petrine-institutional dimension and the Marian-charismatic dimension. What perspectives are opened up by this vision the Pope has of the Church?
A. – On that day the Pope ignited in us a dream, the dream of the Church of the 3rd millenium, the Church as communion. In this time of re-discovery of the charisms working in unity with one another and in deep communion with the Pope and with the Bishops, I feel great hope that the work of the Holy Spirit will shine forth and will lead the world to Jesus. From that day on, in order to respond to the wish the Pope expressed for communion among the Movements, I assumed the task of initiating a journey of exchange among the people of the movements and new communities. I never would have imagined the developments that we’re seeing today. The Pentecost event was repeated in countless dioceses all over the world, with many bishops present, gathering together hundreds of movements and communities. The result? New vitality and great hope. News of the progress of this journey reached persons of movements and communities of dozens of different Churches, for example, in the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Germany. I don’t believe such a phenomenon existed before this. And ever since 1999, there has been such friendship, such brotherhood, that the idea came to us to render this brotherhood visible, for example in a wide-scale meeting, and on May 8, 2004, such a meeting will take place in Stuttgart. Through this event we will try to bring through our different charisms a contribution to that reality of the “spirit of Europe”. Q. – Could you describe your relationship with the Pope? A. – My relationship with the Pope has increased in depth over the years. As a matter of fact, on one or two occasions, I experienced something extraordinary. For example, after an audience with him, in which I experienced a moment of great unity with the Pope – daughter to father, one could say – I had the feeling that Heaven had opened up, and I experienced a very special union with God. What made it unique was the fact that I felt there were no intermediaries. The Pope is an intermediary. But when a mediator has fulfilled the function of helping the other reach union with God, then that mediator disappears. I sensed that this depends also on the fact that the Pope received the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Scripture says: “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom”. Perhaps he uses these keys not just to cancel our sins, but also to open us up to a deeper union with God. This might explain certain profound changes of heart and changes in the course of history that he has operated over these past 25 years. He communicates God and God is the one who makes all things new. It is a Presence that becomes stronger and stronger the more it is refined by suffering. Q. – Do any particular episodes with the Pope come to your mind? A. – Many special moments come to my mind. They mark milestones in the history of our Movement and beyond. One such moment was on Sept. 23, 1985. An audience with the Pope was concluding and I was about to leave. I had in mind the future of our Movement and I dared to ask the Pope, “Would you think it possible that the President of the Focolare Movement (of this Work of Mary, which is “of Mary”), would you think it possible that the President might always be a woman?” “Yes,” he answered, “if only it could be so!” His words, the sentiments that motivated that “yes,” opened up for me for the first time a new awareness about the Church in its two dimensions – the petrine or institutional dimension and the Marian, charismatic, dimension. “Both were present in the early Church,” he said, citing the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, “and they need to remain!” And this is the new element that the Pope has mentioned on several occasions since then. What’s interesting to note is that the Holy Father doesn’t see the Marian profile of the Church as simply a spiritual or mystical reality. He sees it as an historical reality as well, and he bears witness to this conviction with facts, opening up the doors to all the new things that the Holy Spirit wants to work. Q. – And another episode? A. – Over the years, the same vocations that exist in the Work of Mary among the Catholics came to life also among the youth, families, persons of various backgrounds, Anglicans, Lutherans, Orthodox and persons of other Churches,. This is something new, and the canonists needed to study it over the years. At one point I thought we would never find the solution. Then I spoke about it with the Pope. He was very open to the idea! During the second audience on this topic, again just as I was about to leave, he said to me with his characteristic intuitive sense, “I understand. It should be said. ‘Don’t interfere with the Work of Mary. It is Mary’s work’!” With that the situation turned around. That very night, a thought came to me: if there is a point which is an obstacle in the ecumenical journey, it’s the magisterium of the Pope. Yet who is the one “welcoming” these focolarini of the other Churches? The Pope. This will remain in our history. The Holy Father then went even further: he was the one who suggested that even the bishops of other Christian traditions meet regularly as they have been now for years, so as to undergird their ministry with the spirituality of unity already shared by many Catholic bishops. The Pope approved that bond, not a juridical one, but a spiritual bond, with the Work of Mary.
14 Oct 2003 | Non categorizzato
“In a world stricken by terrorism, war, and vengeance, the Marian Congress heralds the dawn of a world of hope, peace, love and holiness,” was the spontaneous remark of a participant in Taiwan right after the event held there. A young Austrian said, “It was all so very new, nothing old-fashioned. To offer Mary like this is a stroke of genius!” .“I discovered that the rosary is indeed a peace prayer, an antidote to war!” they wrote from the Philippines. From Argentina: “Today I discovered Mary as a woman of peace, a strong woman who is a model for the whole human race!” . And from Uganda, “It’s marvellous to understand Mary in a new way. This encourages us to bring her home with us, to live with her in our changing society.” These are just a few of the many comments received after the 157 Marian Congresses which took place all over the world during the Year of the Rosary. Mary was rediscovered particularly in her role as mother and model for one’s life. She showed the way for many people who now want to follow in her footsteps.
The peak moment was the International Marian Congress held at Castelgandolfo (Rome), which served as a model for the numerous Congresses which later studded the globe, almost as a chorus of praise to Mary on a planetary scale.
Participants at some of the Congresses: Milan – 9,000; Slovakia – 1,900; Korea – 2,250; Manila (Philippines) – 1,800; Malaysia – 1,300; Mexico – 1,200; Buenos Aires (Argentina) – 3,400; Paraguay – 2,000; Congo – 1,500; Burundi – 3,000. Wherever a Marian Congress took place, it proved to be a remarkable experience of the life of the Church. In most cases the Congress was organized jointly by the members of various Movements and associations of an entire diocese or region. In this way, the event highlighted the charismatic and marian dimension of the Church.
News of the Congresses appeared in newspapers or in some cases on television. Bishops, politicians, artists, representatives of ecclesial Movements and personalities of the cultural sector offered their significant contribution. Another characteristic note was the presence of brothers and sisters of different Christian denominations. In some cases they also shared their experiences.
Some followers of the Great Religions spoke about the idea of Mary in their respective faiths.
Since November 2002, “Città Nuova” magazine offered a column entitled “The Year of the Rosary”. A new book by Chiara Lubich, Mary – Through her God shines, was printed, and for children a small, colourful volume entitled, “She was so very beautiful”.
On October 16, 2002, in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II handed a letter to Chiara in which, among other things, he wrote, “I wish to entrust the prayer of the Holy Rosary ideally to all the Focolarini (…) Give your contribution so that the following months may be an occasion of inner renewal for all Christian communities.” Chiara immediately adhered to the Pope’s request, and soon ideas and initiatives came up on how to concretize the Focolare Movement’s response to the Pope. Messages of thanks from all over the world were later sent to him for the many fruits of new, unexpected spiritual life born thanks to the Marian Congresses
